SDSU president assembling task force to review Aztec mascot, moniker

San Diego State's Aztec Warrior leads the band and football team during the Warrior Walk through the alumni section of the SDCCU Stadium parking lot before a football game last fall.

San Diego State's Aztec Warrior leads the band and football team during the Warrior Walk through the alumni section of the SDCCU Stadium parking lot before a football game last fall. (Kent Horner / Getty Images)

San Diego State once again will consider the appropriateness and future of the school’s Aztecs nickname and Aztec Warrior mascot.

Sally Roush, SDSU’s interim president, announced the creation of a 17-member task force to review the mascot and moniker.

According to the university, the task force will be comprised of five student, five staff/faculty and five alumni representatives as well as two at-large community members appointed by Roush. Nominations for task force representatives will be taken through Jan. 26 and the task force members will be announced Feb. 2.

“All viewpoints regarding SDSU’s identity have a right to be respectfully heard and carefully considered,” Roush said in a school news release. “This task force will provide an opportunity for dialogue to continue among stakeholders in the SDSU community and will provide information on how to represent university traditions, build communal spirit and honor specific facets of our campus culture.”

The task force will be given an April 30 deadline to present its information and recommendation to Roush, who, according to the release, “said she intends to make a final decision about the Aztec identity and mascot no later than May 31.”

The university also indicated a survey will be sent out early next month to SDSU alumni to get their input on the issue.

“There are thousands of alumni locally and around the world who care passionately about the university’s past and its future,” Dan Montonya, associate vice president of SDSU Alumni, said in the release. “Those voices are an important part of the conversation about honoring and celebrating our shared experiences as members of the SDSU community.”

San Diego State University’s Senate voted overwhelmingly to retire the Aztec mascot in November, just seven months after student leaders voted to keep it.

The resolution was a non-binding advisory to the university president, calling for SDSU to retire the human representation of an Aztec and the use of spears or “weapons that connote barbaric representations of the Aztec culture.”

It also called for creating a task force to investigate and make recommendations about the appropriateness of the continued usage of the Aztec moniker.

The university Senate — composed of professors, lecturers, a coach, four staff members and administrators —voted 52-15 in favor of the resolution.

The Daily Aztec, SDSU’s student news organization, quoted Senate Chair Marcie Bober-Michel, a professor in the School of Journalism and Media Studies, saying at the time that she was confident the resolution would not be approved by Roush, but still would send a message and begin a discussion.

Many schools and teams in recent years have dropped mascots that depict different cultures following objections that they are insensitive and/or racist.

The Aztec mascot has been controversial for years, and the school has responded by making some changes to the image, including dropping the old Monty Montezuma mascot in favor of an Ambassador Montezuma in 2002.

The ambassador was not received well, however, and the school adopted a modified Aztec Warrior two years later.

While seen as more authentic than Monty Montezuma, some still found the image of a person dressed in the adornments of another culture offensive.

In April 2017, the SDSU Associated Students council rejected a resolution to phase out the Aztec logo and mascot in a 14-12 vote. The resolution had been proposed by the Native American Student Alliance.

SDSU teams have been known as the Aztecs for more than 90 years.

According to the The Daily Aztec, the origin of a mascot dressed as ancient Aztec ruler Montezuma II has been traced to halftime of a 1941 football game.

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